Commerce Computers Infected With Virus

Computers in the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration have been infected by a virus. The computers may have been the target of a cyber-attack, The Washington Post reported.

The attack was discovered two weeks ago in the division that employs 215 people and is responsible for making business-development grants to help create jobs. Employees have been blocked from the Internet for the past 10 days, the Post reported.

“Something has to be really bad in order for the response to be, ‘Let’s disconnect from the Internet,’ ” Jacob Olcott, who works for Good Harbor Consulting, a cyber-risk management company, told the Post.

Hackers have attacked systems at the Defense and State departments in recent years along with another Commerce Department division, the Bureau of Industry and Security. Experts have focused on China and Russia as the possible culprits in information thefts from government, business and research institution computers, the Post reported.